Agricultural harvesting machines, such as balers, are used to consolidate and package crop material so as to facilitate the storage and handling of the crop material for later use. In the case of hay, a mower-conditioner is typically used to cut and condition the crop material for windrow drying in the sun. In the case of straw, an agricultural combine discharges non-grain crop material from the rear of the combine defining the straw (such as wheat or oat straw) which is to be picked up by the baler. The cut crop material is typically raked and dried, and a baler, such as a large square baler or round baler, straddles the windrows and travels along the windrows to pick up the crop material and form it into bales.
On a large square baler, a pickup unit at the front of the baler gathers the cut and windrowed crop material from the ground. The pickup unit includes a pickup roll, and optionally may include other components such as side shields, stub augers, wind guard, etc.
A packer unit is used to move the crop material from the pickup unit to a duct or pre-compression chamber. The packer unit forms a wad of crop within the pre-compression chamber which is then transferred to a main bale chamber. (For purposes of discussion, the charge of crop material within the pre-compression chamber will be termed a “wad”, and the charge of crop material after being compressed within the main bale chamber will be termed a “flake”). Typically such a packer unit includes packer tines or forks to move the crop material from the pickup unit into the pre-compression chamber. Instead of a packer unit it is also known to use a rotor cutter unit which chops the crop material into smaller pieces.
A stuffer unit transfers the wad of crop material in charges from the pre-compression chamber to the main bale chamber. Typically such a stuffer unit includes stuffer forks which are used to move the wad of crop material from the pre-compression chamber to the main bale chamber, in sequence with the reciprocating action of a plunger within the main bale chamber. A conventional stuffer can include one or more stuffer forks, and each stuffer fork can include one of more stuffer tines. The tines can have a same shape and width, or a different shape and width. For example, the following manufacturers have these stuffer designs:
New Holland—1 fork, 6 tines;
Kuhn—1 fork, 7 tines;
Krone—5 forks, 7 tines.
The number of forks and tines can influence the final configuration of the baler.
On existing balers, the stuffer unit can include a trip mechanism which is used to detect the crop pressure in the pre-compression chamber. The trip mechanism is spring loaded, and the target crop pressure can be set by an operator. When the target crop pressure is reached, the trip mechanism is tripped and the stuffer unit transfers the wad of crop material to the main bale chamber.
In the main bale chamber, the plunger compresses the wad of crop material into flakes to form a bale and, at the same time, gradually advances the bale toward the outlet of the bale chamber. When enough flakes have been added and the bale reaches a full (or other predetermined) size, a number of knotters are actuated which wrap and tie twine, cord or the like around the bale while it is still in the main bale chamber. The twine is cut and the formed baled is ejected out the back of the baler as a new bale is formed. The plunger includes a number of laterally spaced plunger slots that allow needles from under the bale chamber to transfer twine or the like to the knotters for use in tying off the bale. The plunger slots can become plugged with crop matter, and thus some type of passive cleaning structure is typically used to clean the slots as the plunger reciprocates back and forth.
What is needed in the art is an agricultural baler which effectively transfers crop within the baler.